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29 March, 2013

So what an incredible day to celebrate... Our daughters day. (: That's DAUGHTERS PLURAL actually!! We received some very big news today on Mae's Gotcha Day... We got Pre-approval from China for our other daughter. Yes, we are for sure bringing home a son, Ian, and a daughter!! (I could put a million exclamation points here.)
So, I know you want to see her...

This little darling is our baby girl.

Her Chinese name is Ming and we have chosen to name her Jovie Ming. As you could guess, Jovie means "joyful" and Ming means "bright, brilliant". Jovie just turned one year old on January 3, so she is 9 months younger than our sweet Ian. She is from Zhengzhou, the same place Mae was! She started out in Mae's orphanage until she was 7 1/2 months old but has been moved to an incredible place that fosters children. Jovie Ming has a serious heart defect and needs a surgery as soon as possible. Her diagnosis is double outlet right ventricle, large VSD and pulmonary atresia. Her surgery can not be done in China, so Cody and I will do everything we can to expedite our adoption paperwork so that she can come home and get her surgery.
We love her so much already and on this monumental day that we received our first love, I am reminded just how magnificent our Healer and Savior is. Our Father has every detail planned for our journey and has the power to heal our children completely. I have a new, fierce motherly fire inside me to get our children home... And God knows that. As you walk this journey, I can not tell you how many people will tell you of God's perfect timing. Yes, it is true. But thank goodness I can plead with him to stand in my place and keep my children safe in China. My peace comes in knowing that He is there, when I am not. With every adoption I draw so much closer to Him. I am more than aware of how little I am in control of. These children are His children and however much I think I love them, He loves them so much more. Thank you Abba.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

28 March, 2013

Today is a very, very special day; two years ago today Mae was placed in our arms. We celebrate this day that Cody and I are abundantly and forever blessed. I remember so clearly longing for her and it is all too real again for us, as we wait to know Mae's brother and sister now. When we finally got her in our arms, I don't know how we even managed the amount of emotions that we felt. I had never experienced that kind of love. I'm over the moon in love with Cody, but there is a whole other love and awe you get as a parent. God has done a remarkable thing, as I look at the evolution of my heart I'm amazed that at one time I might have gone without ever having the rich blessings of being a mother.

Our girl has grown so much since this first day. I realized in February that she had finally spent as long with us as her time in China. We've experienced so much together in these two years.

Today Mae's school had their Easter party and Mae got to hunt Easter eggs. Her clever teachers made it a little extra hard by putting their names on the eggs, so Mae was just finding the eggs with her name! All the kiddos did so great!

Cody got to come to her school too to see her! Mae was so very happy to have us both there! I loved that we could be there.

06 March, 2013

We will place our last order for the tees on March 15th.

If you want to have one, please order now. We truly love these shirts; they feel great on. We've had several people who have ordered tell us that they are their new favorite shirt. So they are not only swell, but they also help bring home our little ones from China. Our first sales of tees alone have already raised over $1000 for our adoption. Ya'll, that is awesome!!!

2) Please spread the word. This helps more than you think and means the world to us. Please share on your Facebook, Twitter and blogs *you can grab our button to put on the sidebar of your blog. And maybe you aren't real media savvy... there's always the old fashioned word of mouth. (Almost everyone that shared the first time, inspired others that had never met us to buy a tee to support us. Ya'll don't even know the impact that has had.)

3) Pray. Pray. Pray. We are still waiting to find our daughter. Please pray for our family as we search for her and for our hearts during this waiting time. Please pray for God's direction and wisdom. Every day we see the faces of little girls that could be ours; this whole process is so very emotional. Pray for our sweet Ian, for his protection, and strength for what is ahead for him.

05 March, 2013

Last Saturday morning we packed up our little family (while we are still 3) to go to California to visit my best friend, Tamara. Cody has always told me that we could go out there the next time his work flew him to LA—he knows a girl has to see her BFF and we know we won't be traveling any great distances for a while after Ian comes home. (One up side to all Cody's traveling is the airline points!! We all flew for free.) Tamara just had a sweet baby boy two months ago and has never gotten to meet Mae. It's been way too long.

This was Mae's first time flying since she came home two years ago. She was so great! She thought flying was a ton of fun and kept herself entertained the whole time. This was a great trial run before we take her on the 24 hour trip to China.

We flew into LA and still had a 4 hour trip to get to Santa Margarita where John and Tamara live. We drove up 101 and every single turn along the way was breathtaking. I was praising our Creator the whole way. I have never been any where as beautiful as California. Mountains on one side and crashing waves on the other. It was a sight to see.

Speaking of beauty... I had no idea what John and Tamara's house looked like. Cody and I were stunned by the beauty that surrounded their home. They wouldn't want me bragging but they have acres upon acres of fields of hay, ponds, horses, sheep and cows. And if that isn't cool enough they have quads and a gun range. Their property is surrounded by lush green mountains and the view in every direction is magnificent. Their property has been in John's family for years and is certainly a treasure.

Our little family took a quad out to explore the property with them.

Mae didn't know what to think about the very personable horses.

Tamara and me with baby Zeke - it was Zeke's first adventure on the quads (:

Landon (age 12) taking a turn shooting the rifle. Landon and Ally (age 10) really impressed us with their skills.

Cody and John left to go work during the week, so it gave Tamara and me time to just be together. She took me all over to the cities nearby, so I could see all the things I'd heard her tell me about for years. The nights were awesome too; a bowl of ice-cream and girl talk (:

Cody was done with work on Thursday and so Friday we went out to the beach.

This is Morro Bay and it is overwhelming how beautiful it is. We don't see beaches like this on the East coast (granted they are beautiful too... just nothing that looks like this). The thing that gets my spine tingling is these mountains in the distance.

The girls set up the umbrella and soaked in the sun while the boys went surfing. Look at precious baby Zeke. I miss him so much.

Mae and Ally built a sand castle (I did miss our white sand, mae was filthy).

Cody got to see his friend from high school, Dustin. Dustin lives right across the street from this beach. Cody had never surfed before so Dustin showed him how and graciously let him borrow his suit and board.

Landon has surfed before and it was so fun seeing him catch wave after wave. He did splendid out there. All of them were seriously tired afterward.